Abstract
In early 1851, Nathaniel Hawthorne penned an intriguing preface to his latest work--The House of the Seven Gables. Hawthorne drew a meaningful (if rarely appreciated) distinction:
When a writer calls his work a Romance, it need hardly be observed that he wishes to claim a certain latitude, both as to its fashion and material, which he would not have felt himself entitled to assume, had he professed to be writing a Novel. The latter form of composition is presumed to aim at a very minute fidelity, not merely to the possible, but to the probable and ordinary course of man's experience. The former-while, as a work of art, it must rigidly subject itself to laws, and while it sins unpardonably, so far as it may swerve aside from the truth of the human heart-has fairly a right to present that truth under circumstances, to a great extent, of the writer's own choosing or creation. If he think fit, also, he may so manage his atmospherical medium as to bring out or mellow the lights, and deepen and enrich the shadows of the picture. He will be wise, no doubt, to make a very moderate use of the privileges here stated, and, especially, to mingle the Marvellous rather as a slight, delicate, and evanescent flavor, than as any portion of the actual substance of the dish offered to the Public. He can hardly be said, however, to commit a literary crime, even if he disregard this caution.
Over the past seventy years, much has been said and written about the circumstances, import, and meaning of Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co.--perhaps too much. To this point, that writing has followed Cleveland and its environs. Though most of the malcontents later reneged on their promise s to settle on the parcel (their claims to the twenty-five-square-mile township reverted to the Land Company), the name, and the intimate association with things geometric, survived. So, too, it seems, did the legacy of contention over this soil on and near the shores of Lake Erie. ...
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1997
Recommended Citation
Michael Allan Wolf, “Compelled by Conscientious Duty”: Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. as Romance, 22 J. Sup. Ct. Hist. 88 (1997).
